Paris Watch
Glitter of Stained Glass Catches Young Artist'S Eye
By KIKI YOSHIDA
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ステンドグラスに魅せられた日本人
筆者の友人の河合美和さんは、ステンドグラスの魅力に取り付かれた女性の一人です。河合さんは2年前からステンドグラスの教室に通い始め、今では幾何学的模様と豊かな青色の独自のスタイルに磨きをかけつつあります。さて、このアートの魅力とは…?
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I first met Miwa Kawai at a flea market last year. Among the items she was selling, I
found candle holders and coasters made of stained glass. That triggered my interest
to both the art and Kawai, the artist. I am always intrigued by people who have a
special interest in something.
A growing number of people in Paris are taking up
stained glass making as a craft. Many daily use items — lampshades, boxes, photo
frames, decorative panels and even tables — can be made of stained glasses, not to
mention large church windows.
And the boom in interest in stained class craft has given rise to many new and imaginative forms. Newly built houses are frequently
embellished with stained glass entranceways and bathroom windows.
Kawai, 31, lives
with her husband on the left bank of the Seine. Her life didn't have any connection to
France until her husband got transferred to Paris in February 1998.
Then, believe it or not, the Japan branch of the pharmaceutical company where her husband worked
went bankrupt just one week after they settled in.
When asked to decide whether
to return to Japan or stay in France, they chose to stay. Luckily, Mr. Kawai got another
position in the same company as a local employee.
Two months later, the Kawais
went to Chartres, which is about 90 kilometers southwest of Paris. There they visited
the Chartres Cathedral, which was completed in the 12th century. The cathedral's
stained-glass windows are said to be the most beautiful in the world.
Chartres
Cathedral has both the largest number — 143 in total — and the best qualitywindows.
They depict no less than 1,350 subjects, with over 3,000 figures.
The blue
color used in the windows is a singular shade known as "Chartres blue." They say
for all the advances in technology, no one has found a way to reproduceexactly the
same color.
Miwa felt as though she had been struck by
lightning the moment she
entered the cathedral. It was
the beginning of her love affair with stained glass. As
soon as she got back to Paris,
she began taking lessons.
It took her about
three months just to be able to
cut the glass. Following her
teacher's advice to practice
more frequently, she began
attending the class three
times a week.
At the end
of the course, she was told
that she lacked the proper
skills needed for making designs for her projects. So in a quest to master design
techniques, she dropped in at another school, where
she met a Japanese teacher.
This woman was a stained
glass artist too.
Kawai
took lessons from her for
three months, until the teacher went back to Japan. By
then Kawai had learned skills
for working in three dimensions.
Her enthusiasm bloomed during a trip
to Turkey. When she saw
the stained glass windows at a
mosque, she became convinced that this was what
she really wanted to make.
The geometric patterns
used so plentifully in Islamic
art opened her eyes wide to
the possibilities. And once
again, it was blue that struck
her heart.
On returning
to Paris, she started searching seriously for another
school. This time she knocked
on the door of M. and
Mme. Andriex, whose
works are known worldwide.
Kawai now goes to their
atelier la Maison du Vitrail once a week.
For
Kawai, everything was different at the new studio. Before,
nobody seemed to care what
piece of glass was used. However, Philippe and Christiane
Andriex are very earnest
artisans, starting from
which materials they
choose. "Whatever they do,
they do it accurately. It is
amazing," Kawai
said.
Glass is a form of matter with gas, liquid and solid state properties. It
captures light and glows from within. Kawai recalled that she used to collect pieces of broken glass
when she was a child. She
said she has always
been allured by the reflective qualities of
glass.
After a period of
learning, some people fall into a rut, using ready-
made ideas rather than their
own. In stained glass, the
Art Deco style is one of
these stereotypes. But Kawai
won't fall into that pattern.
She says she wants to create
original work using the blue
colors and geometric patterns
that she adores.
She
has made it her motto to find
her own path, alone. "If you
want to do something, the key
is to start and do it by yourself," she says. While she
doesn't refuse help, she wants
to make her own choices and
decisions, taking responsibility for her own
work.
"I'd like to have
my own atelier and boutique in the future but don't
know where it will be yet,"
Kawai told me. She is also
anxious to make accessories with handmade glass
beads. No wonder I asked
her to make a beautiful pendant for me!
Shukan ST: June 2, 2000
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